Dive 'Wisdom'

Divers say some amazing things…here are three that had the staff falling down laughing:

“What kind of air do you have here? Because I find that different air makes a big difference in my bottom time.” (And no, he wasn’t talking about Nitrox.)

“Do you have Nitrox available, because when I use Nitrox my mask doesn’t fog.”

And my personal favorite:

“I take Valium when I dive because it helps me clear my ears. It makes the hairs in my ears stand up and that helps with the clearing.”

I SWEAR all of these are direct quotes, though of course I’m not going to provide attribution. Pictured at left divemaster Michelle pets a friendly grouper, as others wait their turn. Over and out.

Gladys: Pirates Point's Leader

Gladys Howard is the owner/manager of Pirates Point Resort. She’s a 78-year-old Texas tornado. She’s also an award-winning cookbook author, who studied cooking with Julia Child, James Beard and Jacques Pepin. And she operated a cooking school and gourmet catering service for more than 20 years before coming to Little Cayman.

In 2003, Gladys was awarded the Queen's "Badge of Honor" by Prince Edward during the Cayman Islands Quincentennial for her volunteer work in environmental conservation with the National Trust in Little Cayman.

And Gladys is going strong – next year will be Pirates Point’s 25th anniversary. Guests will find Gladys greeting them at the dinner buffet, organizing bird watching outings, playing dominoes into the evening or costumed for a party. Gladys LOVES any excuse for a party. She’s pictured here in a dining room portrait and at this year’s Halloween Party – she called herself “Princess Laos” and she’s wearing a headdress from Laos, which she picked up on her tour of Southern Asia this fall. Despite two knee replacements, she also made 23 dives around Komodo and took the two-hour dragon walk on Rinca Island.

Toilet Bowl Surprise

Look what appeared in my toilet this afternoon. Yep, somehow this little green frog was chillin in the bowl. When I left for the boat this morning, the toilet was empty and I left the lid down. So his navy seal invasion is another one of those weird little island mysteries. And yes, I did execute a man overboard drill, or in this case a man in the bowl rescue drill. I put my hand in there and nabbed him so I could release him outside; no I didn't send him for the big spin.

But what if I hadn't noticed him before, um, recycling some ice tea??? Let's not go there.

Diver Betty

Meet Betty, a diver who’s staying at Pirates Point this week. Betty took up diving at age 56 and now she’s 84 and still at it. She’s an inspiration. She’s been diving at Pirates Point for 11 years, but she also dives all over the world. In February of this year, she went diving in Truk Lagoon in Micronesia. She says she loves diving in the South Pacific, in addition to diving at Little Cayman. She’s pictured here with her dive buddy Walt; they’ve been diving together since 1993. They met diving in Cozumel. Neither of their spouses dives, so they team up to dive down.
Betty dives using Nitrox and recently learned about Pirates Point's new Nitrox analyzer. So she not only keeps up her dive skills, she stays current with the latest dive technology too. So when you’re whining about some aching muscle or stupid little wrinkle, think of Betty and just get over it.

Divemaster 'Skills'

Think being a divemaster is all about guiding divers underwater? Certainly that’s part of the job. But here’s a list of divemaster skills that you might not have contemplated:

1. Slinging 25 to 50 scuba tanks in a typical day.
2. Lassoing elusive buoys with tangled lines in choppy seas.
3. Helping divers up a bucking boat ladder, without getting throw off the boat yourself, or if in the water without getting smacked in the head by a tank, fin, weight belt.
4. Observing inexperienced divers do some amazingly clumsy and hilarious moves, without spitting out your regulator laughing. And still offering to help them even when they haven’t listened to last five things you’ve suggested.
5. Watching guests blow chunks, without gagging, and then offering them water and a paper towel, and rinsing the boat, gear, their buddy, if needed.
6. Responding to different Captains’ styles of driving/docking/anchoring/etc./without comment or complaint even if you’re secretly thinking he or she might be a distant relative of Captain Bligh.
7. Responding to equipment failures quickly, with calm action, even if you’re thinking “holy shit that could have been bad.”
8. Answering the same questions every week with new guests, all with a smile on your face and laughter in your heart.
9. Having creature encounters that result in a happy dance underwater by the divers and the divemaster.
10. Seeing the daily different moods of the water and loving every minute of it.

Pirate Parade

This is Pirates Week in the Cayman Islands, an annual celebration of the nefarious part of the island chain’s history. Little Cayman kicks off the festivities with its Pirates’ Parade. Resorts and businesses build floats and drag them down the main street, ending up at the Hungry Iguana, the island’s only stand-alone eatery. It’s an excuse to dress up and party down. Pictured at left "pro" pirates from Grand Cayman, blue Avatar pirates and Pirates Point’s float, depicting greedy pirates of yesteryear, and green eco-pirates of today.
Diving news: We’re diving the south side of the island due to some strong north winds and big swells. Yesterday’s excitement included a small, curious Caribbean reef shark bumping a diver’s video camera. It’s clear from the video footage that the little shark scared herself more than the diver.
The temperature dropped below 80 degrees last night, burr! But weather service promises improvement by Wed./Thurs.

Waves and Work

Enjoying my first day off after 7 days of work. It’s a blustery day with high winds and waves at the condo (seas in front of condo pictured, along with a picture of the front of the condo). We’ve had rain squalls go through the past couple of days and I expect we’ll see more today.
I’m working very hard trying to learn all the boat skills, tank handling and filling tasks and the restaurant and serving duties. Divemasters at Pirates Point do it all. About the only time I feel relatively competent is underwater. I’ve guided 5 days of diving now and I haven’t gotten any divers lost yet. Success! But getting divers to pay attention to their environment, the dive route and their safety is definitely like herding unruly, excited kindergartners at times. The job also is very physically demanding. I spent 2 hours underwater yesterday, loaded a truck with gear, loaded and unloaded gear on the boat and helped move a truckload of scuba tanks. I also cleaned up after breakfast and helped set up the dining room for dinner…and that was a short day because I didn’t have to come back and work dinner. One of the guests said to me this week, after observing all that the crew does, “this isn’t a slow island pace is it?” Nope, far from it.

Sharks, Dolphins and Whales

Attended a presentation last night by researchers from the Cayman Islands Department of the Environment. They're in Little Cayman for a few weeks doing research on sharks, dolphins and whales. Although the Caymans aren't a tourist destination known for these animals, they're definitely here. We have a variety of sharks, but the ones we see most often are Caribbean Reef Sharks, Nurse Sharks (pictured at left) and Blacktip Sharks. The researchers are tagging sharks, so it was fun to tell them last night that we'd seen one of their tagged Caribbean Reef sharks on one of our dives that day at a site called Mixing Bowl on the north side of the island. They've asked divemasters and divers to report back to them when we see tagged animals. The bad news: They've seen Honduran fishing boats finning sharks in the Caymans, and they're worried about declining populations of sharks. They've also been hearing some dolphins in our area with their hydrophone (they heard one just last week). The Cetaceans in our area include Bottlenose Dolphins, Atlantic Spotted Dolphins, Pantropical Spotted Dolphins, False Killer Whales, Pilot Whales, Beaked Whales and Sperm Whales.

Yesterday, I guided my first divers. We had 2 great dives and all returned to the boat safely. Whew! We saw Caribbean Reef Sharks, a seahorse, a turtle, a huge barracuda, several big lobsters, and many other fish and creatures. The resort is up and running for a new season and is filling up. Now it's go, go, go!